To those of who keep wondering "Norris, what exactly ARE you doing?"

Hey - thought I'd update you on a few things... Life is very screwy, but the essentially non-paying part of my life (the research on entrepreneurial thinking and how to nurture it, both micro & macro) has accelerated. Really blowing the doors off. (What will frighten many of you is that at conferences, people show early to get a seat for one of my papers, LOL.) Next stop: A project using neuroscience!! ( http://del.icio.us/NorrisKrueger/neuro for some cool links)

However, I do need to work a wee bit more on stuff that gets me paid. (Advice *always* welcome, LOL)

I had a great June expedition that got extended to give talks in Sweden & Finland on how to grow a more entrepreneurial economy (plus the research conferences & teaching doctoral students)- I was in northern Sweden [ Lulea**], Stockholm, Madrid and Turku [Finland]. Lulea included my being the Distinguished Opponent for a doctoral dissertation defense; Madrid was the Babson Entrepreneurship conference for cutting-edge research; Finland was ICSB which has a more practice/teaching emphasis.

I even got to indulge my jones for social entrepreneurship, meeting with experts in getting the disabled back to work in all 3 countries [a friend has a colleague who's a social entrepreneur in this space. I had a crisis to deal with that further delayed my re-surfacing in my Boise routine, but that seems to be handled.

I'm off for a few days to Philly for the outsized Academy of Management meetings (I have 5 sessions, including THE workshop on social entrep, more cognition stuff and the "double helix" for development that Idaho is using - you'll see in the attached) then back here to keep trying to figure out what I can do to help Idaho nurture a more entrepreneurial economy. (I also did get my arm twisted to write the attached for "Idaho Business IQ" magazine. Comments are MOST welcome! You can even leave me rude comments on the IQ's site - http://www.iqidaho.com/ )

I've been writing for the www.techboise.com blog site (check it out!)
And now I'm edging into my own blog: http://entrepreneurshipidaho.blogspot.com (ditto!)

Please check it out & tell me:
What should I write about next?
What will matter the most to help entrepreneurs?
To help Idaho??



** 22 hours of daylight was a bit much, LOL

For those of you who wonder what exactly I do at entrepreneurship conferences, here's one session I helped put together ... (I'm also presenting on entrepreneurial passion and on the "double helix" model of entrepreneurial development -- the one that Idaho uses!)

OK, so you want to learn how social entrepreneurship is worth all the buzz? Whether you've been at it for a while or a complete newbie, this is for you!
These are the 'best & brightest' and include those who first brought social & sustainable entrepreneurship to academe (Johanna, me, Ana Maria). A wonderful confluence of teaching, research and community engagement!

Ping me at norris.krueger@gmail.com, if I can be of any help!


SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
ADVANCES IN RESEARCH & PRACTICE

Academy of Management Preconference –
Saturday, 4 August, 2007; 12 Noon to 3:30 PM

Social entrepreneurship is a premier example of "doing well by doing good." This workshop, specifically designed for doctoral students, explores the following questions. What are the prevailing ideas regarding social entrepreneurship? How are scholars explaining social entrepreneurship? How should social entrepreneurship be explored as a field of study? What are the challenges in pursuing this area of research?

Our goal in this workshop is to provide a venue for discussion and exploration of topics in this emerging area of research. Doctoral students interested in this topic are encouraged to attend. Social entrepreneurship is a premier example of "doing well by doing good." In recent years theoretical and empirical research on social
entrepreneurship has increased. For example, several professional development workshops and papers on social entrepreneurship were presented, well attended and applauded at the Academy of Management, Babson and ICSB meetings in 2006. This workshop is an extension and enhancement of a rapidly self-organizing community of research around the theme of social and sustainable entrepreneurship and economic development. This inclusive community of scholars and practitioners will share their research including theoretical developments, best
practices in teaching and profiles of global social entrepreneurs.

The relevance of social entrepreneurship has been recently validated by the Nobel Peace prize awarded to Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank. Professor Yunus has had significant collaboration with Ashoka Fellows before and since his election as a founding member of Ashoka's Global Academy in 2001. Professor Yunus will be directing some of his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize Award towards building eye hospitals for the poor in Bangladesh. The idea, sparked by Ashoka Fellow David Green in collaboration with his own organization, Project
Impact, and eyecare partners Aravind and Seva Foundation, will develop an initial five eye hospitals in Bangladesh.

Another significant event that illustrates the importance of the social dimension of entrepreneurship was the conference "Business as an Agent of World Benefit: Management Knowledge Leading Positive Change". This Global Forum, which was sponsored by The Academy of Management and The United Nations Global Compact, was held "October 22nd-25th at Case Western Reserve University and online uniting top business leaders and educators to focus on ways of doing business that are both profitable and succeed in addressing the world's most
pressing social needs. This event united corporate and thought leaders to combine theory with practice to develop strategies for businesses seeking to respond to social issues like the environment, health and poverty while also making a profit." Panelists Ana Maria Peredo & myself attended that - an intriguing exercise.

Participants will present their recent research and best practices to the audience which would then be invited to share their experiences and lessons learned in round table discussions facilitated by the panelists. The intent of this interactive workshop is to expand, enrich and enhance the development of a community of research on
social entrepreneurship. The outcomes of the workshop should include collaborations for articles, books and additional workshops on this important topic. A summary of the outcomes of the workshop will be drafted and shared with colleagues at Ashoka, USASBE, ICSB, AIB and other interested scholars, foundations, organizations and practitioners around the world to build stronger bridges and increase traffic over those connections.

This workshop will have break out sessions that will explore the following questions. What are the prevailing ideas regarding social entrepreneurship? How are scholars explaining social entrepreneurship? How should social entrepreneurship be explored as a field of study? What are the challenges in pursuing this area of
research? What are the best practices in teaching social entrepreneurship? What are some of the best practices of social entrepreneurs that can be used as case studies? How can we obtain funding for research on theory and practice of social
entrepreneurship? What are possible publication outlets for our research? What are the best strategies for getting published in quality peer reviewed journals?

AGENDA (3.5 HOURS)
I. Welcome and Overview of Session (20 minutes)
II. Research Perspectives Presentations (50 minutes)
III. Best Practices (Cases and Teaching) (50 minutes)
IV. Coffee/ soft drink break (10 minutes)
V. Breakouts Sessions with facilitators (30 minutes)
VI. Lessons Learned - Report out from breakouts (30 minutes)
VII. Concluding Remarks (20)

DETAILED AGENDA

I. Welcome and Overview
Recent Conferences on Social Entrepreneurship Research and Practice
Jeff Robinson – Summary report on the NYU event in April (10 minutes)
Kai Hockerts- Summary Report on ISERC3 (10 minutes)

II. Applied Research Perspectives (10 minutes each)
a. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti (Institutional View of SE)
b. Norris Krueger (Cognitive [entrepreneurial learning] View of SE)
c. Ana Maria Peredo (Community Entrepreneurship View of SE)
d. Alan Carsrud & Moriah Meysken (Evolutionary View of SE)
e. Questions

III. Practice (10 minutes each)
a. Dianne Welsh (Art House Project)
b. Bayou Bill Schulte (Beyond Intent: Social Actions of Entrepreneurs)
c. Bob D'Intino (Social Entrepreneurship Education/ Micro lending)
d. Susan Davis (Ashoka Update)
e. Tom Dean (invited) (social venture competition)
f. Questions

IV. Introductions of Participants and Roundtable Sessions (Schulte,
Robinson, et al.)

V. Lessons Learned - Report out from Roundtables (facilitators)

VI. Concluding Remarks: Toward a Community of Research and Practice on
Social Entrepreneurship and Suggestions for future publishing and research opportunities (Bill Schulte)

VII. Adjourn and Social Networking

You will NOT want to miss this!
--
Keep entrepreneuring!
Norris


Norris Krueger, Jr., Ph.D.
Teams / Entrepreneurship Northwest
"How can I help YOU to help grow entrepreneurs?"
(208) 440-3747; skype: norris.krueger
"I criticize by creation, not by finding fault" -Cicero

still working on this one... but if you want "the rest of the story" re Idaho's rankings, read on! NK

We’re Number 37! We’re Number 37!

Idaho is #1 in new firms, according to the annual Development Report Card for the States (www.cfed.org) yet we are only #37 in the number of jobs created by those new firms. #1 in firms, yet #37 in creating jobs from those firms? What’s the disconnect?

Who's More Entrepreneurial? The Northwest or the Rustbelt?

The “entrepreneurial” Pacific Northwest states average 6^th in new firms, yet averaging 45^th in job creation by new firms. Yet, the boring Midwest averages only 43^rd in new firms, yet their new firms average 5^th in creating jobs. So what is going on?

Are we creating new businesses? Evidently!

Are we creating entrepreneurs who will grow…. And create jobs? Evidently… not.

Here are more stats that paint a pretty clear picture of Idaho's economy. These are also from CFED, but other indexes and scorecards keep showing the same clear patterns

The Good:

Here are areas where Idaho ranks highly -

* We are #1 in patents per capita and lest you think that this is all Micron, HP & INL, we're still #11 in inventor patents. Not too shabby.

* We are #11 in the percentage of our jobs that are in the high tech sector and #12 in R&D spending by industry.

* In terms of having a dynamic economy, we're #6 in 'churning' (business entries plus exits)

That tells us that we are probably pretty good at creating ideas and getting comfortable with a fast-changing economy. However...

The Bad:

Here the story is less encouraging -

* We are short-handed in IT professionals (#38) and even worse for knowledge workers (ranked #44) and they aren't migrating here (#45).

* We're #43 in broadband access to the internet.

* We aren't doing well on the global front either, only #43 in global businesses and #42 in package exports.

* Not only are we #37 in jobs from new firms, we are #41 in jobs created by high growth “gazelle” firms.

* Finally, we are #50, dead last, in manufacturing value-added.

Here's where our shortage of high-growth “gazelle” firms costs us dearly...

Only 0.9% of Idaho workers are employed in manufacturing industries that offer above-average value-added. Less than 1 percent? (The national average is 26.9. No matter how you rationalize it, there's a problem here.) It's more than we have relatively few jobs in manufacturing, our manufacturing is in industries driven by costs and shrinking margins.

And where do you find the most high-growth entrepreneurial firms? In industries where firms add enough value to earn that growth. High value-added industries are where entrepreneurs find the most opportunities for explosive growth.

Yes, we have a tech-driven economy, but we are not creating jobs or wealth. We need to build the tangible infrastructure (e.g., broadband) and the human infrastructure (e.g., knowledge workers and IT professionals). Most of all, we need to start creating businesses that are truly entrepreneurial and create wealth and create jobs.

So What Can We Do?

As I travel around, I get asked all the time “How do we make a place more entrepreneurial?” Yes, we do know an awful lot about what it takes to make organizations and communities more entrepreneurial. Across the US, across the globe, these best practices work.

However, getting people to listen can be tough. One way to do that is that we must never lose sight of the true goal: Creating economic wealth (which usually translates into creating good jobs)! Starting lots of small business simply is not enough.

Even urban Idaho needs to grow its own jobs. Long term, job creation only happens two ways: (1) New startups and (2) Growing businesses. The CFED stats suggest we can be optimistic about the first but really need to obsess about the second.

Creating jobs is very much a human process, driven by passionate, expert individuals. Increasingly, though, policymakers tend to take the bureaucratic view and look from “40,000 feet” –and a corresponding focus on institutions. (If we fund the right entities in industry, academe and government….jobs happen. But where are the humans?)

Brute Fact: Institutions don’t create jobs; entrepreneurs do.

Fortunately, policymakers are returning to the reality that job creation depends on people, on entrepreneurs and those who help them: That you grow an entrepreneurial economy – that you grow jobs - one entrepreneur at a time!

Consider the three key ingredients of job creation. The first two are “innovation assets” (Ideas) and “entrepreneurial assets” (People). Idaho is already investing in supporting those. Both are obviously essential but too often we lack the ingredient #3, what we call “bridging assets”. The critical leverage point is having and supporting those connectors who not only support the first two, but work energetically to proactively connect people, ideas and resources.

States and communities that champion their own champions create a lot more jobs and a lot more economic wealth for their citizens. (p.s. Having lots of gazelles also translates into higher future quality of life scores!)

Fortunately, Idaho has recognized this and begun the arduous, yet rewarding process of building the selfless partnering that generates and supports connecting people, ideas and resources. Led by the Governor’s Science & Technology Advisory Council, Idaho TechConnect, INL, the Idaho Economic Development Association, Idaho’s Economic Development districts and Idaho Rural Partnership, Idaho has begun to map out important new directions to grow jobs and begun to find ways to bring our existing resources into alignment with those needed new directions.

We have ideas and people, now we need to invest in connecting. We need to invest in the people who already know how to do this, they are your connectors.

Maybe the “entrepreneurial” Northwest lags the “boring” Rust Belt for a reason? And just maybe we can reverse that trend – using the power of connecting to grow jobs!

-30-